Because of you
by The Undead of FF
Summary: Neji is sent to team 7 and has to learn under Kakashi’s guidance with the knucklehead, the emo and the obsessed fan-girl. Little did he realise just how much he truly valued his team, especially the certain girl who always cheered him on. Nejiten.oneshot.


Tenten walked out of the training grounds, dragging an unconscious Lee.

"I wonder where Neji is." She looked up towards the sky, where a lone eagle called. She missed having her cold and haughty team mate by her side. The thought of him brought a faint tinge of red to her cheeks, for she had a crush on him ever since they met. But she knew that he would never return it.

Meanwhile, Neji watched Kakashi and his team train. Disdainfully, he threw a kunai in Naruto's direction, which caused him to yell and pull it out of his backside.

"Neji you bastard! What were you thinking?!" Naruto shouted, spitting as he spoke.

"Hm." He scoffed, returning Naruto's glare with a cold stare.

"Ok team. That's enough training for today." Kakashi announced by snapping his book shut. Neji doubted he had even been watching, considering every single time he had looked up, his head never left the book.

"Sasuke-kun! Let's have dinner together!" Sakura wheedled, crying comical tears when Sasuke rejected her offer by roughly shaking off her hand.

"Sakura-chan! If you want, you can have dinner with me!" Naruto stole his chance, and earned a very big bruise in the face. He reached out into the thin air as Sakura stalked away, angry and depressed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Neji spied Tenten going into the nearby teahouse. He scoffed, but couldn't help looking back to where her figure had been.

"_Neji, don't lose!" _

"_You can do it!" _

"_Come on, are you going to let a weakling like him push you around?!" _

Her cries of support rang through his ears again.

Sometimes, he really cursed himself for having put his whole team in danger. They had been given a mission, just a small one, to deliver an important message to the wind Country. Neji had been the leader. But, as they approached their destination, disaster struck. A group of sound assassins had ambushed them, driven them apart and almost killed each of them off, one by one. Had Gai-sensei not arrived, they would have all died. Even so, the letter had been lost, classifying the mission as a failure. But the shock of seeing his team mates bloodied and broken on the forest floor was a shock immeasurable compared to the previous issue.

"Neji!" Lee was running through the crowds, waving enthusiastically to his team mate.

"Oh, it's just you Lee."

"How is your training?"

"What training?"

"You know, with Kakashi-sensei."

"I hardly call it training." He replied. _If you think that arguing all the time, having a sensei that acts like he could hardly care less and always has his head in that book, and if not his head, a finger, is called training, then you are not a true ninja. _

"It's just another two weeks until you can come back. We will wait! The Springtime of Youth is always lenient!" Lee proudly threw a fist into the air.

Ah yes. Something else to die for. His punishment had been to spend three weeks with team Kakashi, and supposedly 'learn' from them. How this was physically or mentally possible was beyond even a genius like him.

But what baffled him the most was how they could look out for each other when they seemed to hate each other so much on the outside. There was never a mission when Naruto allowed himself to get his ass kicked as long as Sakura was ok, and Sasuke always backed them up. And even Kakashi-sensei was more motivated and powerful than he seemed.

Raising his head, he saw the millions of stars twinkling, and the huge glowing sphere which was called the moon. Entranced, he continued to stare.

"Neji!" He tore his eyes away from the beautiful scene, but was matched with an even more beautiful figure. It was Tenten, running out from the tea house, with a paper bag. Her cheeks were crimson and her hair out of its usual neatness; her buns were unravelling, and strands framed her dark eyes.

"Tenten!" He exclaimed with unusual emotion in his voice. He waited silently for her to catch her breath. Then she thrust the paper bag at him.

"They-are-onigiri's." She managed to gasp. "Your favourites."

He accepted the paper bag, but his eyes didn't stray from her face. "Thank you."

She rubbed the back of her head, laughing. "It's ok. I thought you'd be hungry."

As he took her 'gift', he smiled. "Tenten, thank you."

She blushed. "It's ok Neji." Then she began her way down to her house, but stopped half way. "And…" She said with an unusual quiver, "come back soon. I miss you heaps."

Before he could open his mouth to reply, she had disappeared. He raised his head once more and closed his eyes in gratitude. He finally knew what to make of his emotions, his feelings towards the young kunoichi.

Tomorrow was going to be wonderful.

2


End file.
